Therapeutic device



April 240,' 1937- l RP. LITTLE 2,077,703

` THERAPEUTIC DEVICE n f Filed'Nov. 27, 1955 A TTo'e/VEK PatenteclvApr. 20, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

This invention relates to therapeutic devices. At the present time, certain treatments for a patient require the injection inter-muscularly or subcutaneously of certain medicines, usually in '5 tablet form but which must be dissolved prior to injection. For instance, morphine and other palliatives must be dissolved. Usually this is done by placing the tablet in a spoon having water therein, which spoon is thereafter heated to per- 10 mit dissolution of the tablet. A hypodermic syringe with its needle is then inserted into the liquid and the contents drawn within the syringe.

Medical doctors are constantly required to make injections and the procedure as outlined is ordil5 narily resortedrto. However, the said procedure is inconvenient, and an object of the present invention is to provide a therapeutic device which is so arranged as to be compact, small, hold a solid burnable material, and likewise provided 20 with a compartment adapted to receive the drug to be dissolved.

The device is so constituted and arranged that the combustible or burnable material is preferably in tablet form, and one of said tablets may be placed in said device, the water placed in the compartment arranged therefor in said device, together with the drug to be dissolved. When the combustible tablet is ignited, the chamber or compartment holding the water and the drug will be rapidly heated, whereupon the dissolved drug may be drawn within a hypodermic syringe.

Another object of the invention is to provide a device wherein a chamber or compartment member adapted to hold a dissolved drug is so constructed as to allow all the said liquid and drug to be Withdrawn therefrom without substantial loss.

vThere is also provided by this device, suitable air circulation to control the combustion during a burning of the combustible material.

.Further objects of the invention comprise a device of the character stated, which is simple of structure, inexpensive in cost of manufacture, sanitary, easily carried, always ready for use, and in which all necessary elements are combined in a unitary structure without the necessity of utilizing separate structures.

With the above and other objects in View, the invention consists in the novel and useful provio sion, formation, construction, association, and

relative arrangement of parts, members and features, all as shown in a certain embodiment in the accompanying drawing, described generally,

and more particularly pointed out in the claims. 55 In the drawing:

Figure 1 is an elevation of my improved therapeutic device,

Figure 2 is a sectional view on the line 2-2 of Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a cross sectional View on the line 3--3 of Figure 2, and,

Figure 4. is a View similar to Figure 3, certain of the parts being in a changed relationship.

Referring now with particularity to the drawing, the improved therapeutic device as an entirety is designated by I, and the same includes an outer casing 2 which may be cylindrical in form and provided with one or more spaced segmental openings 3. The casing or housing is internally threaded inward from one end thereof, at 4. A fuel receptacle 5, constituting a tubular member 6 closed at one end "I, and provided with a threaded area at 8, is adapted to be received within a portion of the body 2 when the threads 8 engage the threads 4.

The end 'I of the fuel receptacle acts as a cap.

for the end of the body, and in this particular, the diameter of the end or base 'I is greater than the external diameter of the body, as see the figures. This, of course, limits the reception of the fuel receptacle within the body 2. Telescopically received within the opposite end of the body is a tube 9. This tube is externally threaded at I to receive a threaded cap II at one end, and the opposite end of said tube is castellated, as

shown at I2, that is to say, provided with spacedv slots. These slo-ts subtend substantially the same transverse area as the transverse area of the slots 3. However, the entire area of the slots I2 is not as great as the openings 3. Within the tube 9 is a container or receptacle I3. This receptacle, in the present instance, is in the form of an inverted hollow cone, the apex pointing downwardly, and it will be noted that this receptacle lies between ends ofthe tube 9,

Internally spanning the housing 2 and substantially below the lowermost bounding edge of the openings 3 is a plate I4 formed with a central depression I5. This plate is adapted to have placed in the depression thereof some combustible substance, such as a combustible tablet I6.

The operation, uses, and advantages of the invention just described, are as follows:

Normally, there is housed within the fuel receptacle a plurality of tablets I6, which may be formed of methenamine or hexamethylenamine. This substance is found to be readily ignitable, and to burn with intense heat. By separating the fuel receptacle from the body 2, in the usual manner, to-wit, unscrewing the two members,

one of the tablets may be placed within the fuel receiving depression I5 of the plate or disk I4. rI'he cap II is removed from the tube 9, liquid placed within the receptacle I3, and the necessary drug dropped within said liquid. It will be seen that the tube 9 is of a length sucient to permit the same to extend beyond the end of the housing 2. This construction allows the physician to relatively move the tubes. Hence, the height of the receptacle above the iiame may be regulated, and by transversely turning the tube 9, air draft is likewise regulated. This air regulation is best illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, wherein it will be seen that the castellated construction of the tube 9 may permit a substantial closing of the openings 3 of the housing 2, or by rotating the member 9 within the housing, any degree of opening may be provided.

After the drug has been dissolved, the liquid may be drawn upwardly within a hypodermic syringe in the usual manner.

This invention is not, in any Wise, limited to the character of drug used, as would be self-evident, and the receptacle i 3 may contain a sterilizing solution for the purpose of sterilizing various small surgical instruments.

It is intended that a therapeutic device of the character disclosed should be of a size that readily permits it to be carried in the pocket or in the kit which surgeons usually are provided with for housing various physicians accessories.

W'hereas the devices now known to the inventor require separate entities for performing the function of dissolving a drug, the present invention by having all the units self-contained, presents a device which is always ready for use, with all the necessary members maintained in combination, with the result that it is not necessary to search through a kit in order to iind each individual member. The importance of this becomes apparent when a physician is called upon in a case that requires immediate treatment. It is a simple matter to place one of the pellets I6 in the depression I5, to ignite the same after a r small amount of liquid has been placed within the liquid receptacle I3 with the drug. While the drug is being dissolved the physician is adjusting the needle of his hypodermic syringe ready to immediately withdraw the liquid from the receptacle for injection. After the liquid has been withdrawn, the cap I I may be replaced, and the member 6 likewise reinserted within the body, and the device may then be placed within the kit for further use as the occasion may arise.

The receptacle i3 is made frusto-conical or with sloping sides for the purpose of directing any liquid therein constantly toward the apex, with the result that when a hypodermic needle is inserted within the receptacle I3, all the liquid content may be withdrawn. It is further evident that the construction of the tube 9 is such that a tripod arrangement is provided, which may, under certain circumstances, be utilized without the member 2, and some combustible material may be placed upon any object and, when ignited will heat the member I3. The preferable arrangement is that described and illustrated.

It is obvious that various changes and modications and variations may be made in practicing the invention in departure from the particular showing of the drawing and the description as given without, however, departing from the true spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. The combination in a therapeutic device, of a tubular housing, a receptacle member removably secured within one end of said tubular housing, said receptacle member adapted to hold combustible pellets; a tubular member telescopically received within said tubular housing through the opposite end thereof, said tubular member provided with a receptacle for receiving a liquid and a drug to be dissolved thereby when the liquid is heated, and a disk diametrically disposed within said tubular housing and upon which one of the combustible pellets may be placed and ignited for heating the said receptacle placed thereabove.

2. The combination in a therapeutic device, of a tubular housing, a receptacle member removably secured within one end of said tubular housing, said receptacle member adapted to hold combustible pellets; a tubular member telescopically received within said tubular housing through the opposite end thereof, said tubular member provided with a receptacle for receiving a liquid and a drug to be dissolved thereby when the liquid is heated, a disk diametrically disposed within said tubular housing and upon which one of the combustible pellets may be placed and ignited for heating the said receptacle placed thereabove, said tubular housing and said tubular member both provided with openings adapted to register when said members are relatively rotated to regulate draft in the Zone of the disc upon which said pellet is placed.

3. A relatively small therapeutic device provided with a fuel container adapted to hold ignitable pellets for the purpose of heating a liquid within which a drug is to be dissolved, said therapeutic device including concentrically arranged tubular members, the outermost tubular member provided with a segmental opening and a diametrically disposed disk formed with a depression secured to the outermost tubular member and adjacent said opening; another of said tubular members being telescopically received within the outermost tubular member and capable of rotation and axial movement relative to the outermost tubular member, said last tubular member being provided with a receptacle for receiving the liquid and the drug, and said receptacle capable of adjustment above said disk by the telescopic relationship existing between said tubular members; said tubular member being formed to underlie the opening in said tubular housing and provided with an opening relative turning movement and axial movement between said tubular members regulates the degree of opening through both said openings.

4. In a device of the character disclosed, a tubular housing provided at one end with a container for holding combustible pellets, a receptacle received through the opposite end of said housing, and a disc between said container and said receptacle, said disk adapted to have placedV thereon a combustible pellet for the purpose of heating the receptacle when the pellet is ignited, and means for regulating draft in the zone of said combustible pellet.

ROBERT PARKER LI'I'ILE. 

